


Worry

by CrimsonFirebreeze



Series: Hiddles Diddles [10]
Category: Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: Drugs, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Rape/Non-con References, Smoking, Stalking, Triggers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-03
Updated: 2012-10-03
Packaged: 2017-11-22 14:12:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/610688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrimsonFirebreeze/pseuds/CrimsonFirebreeze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tom has gotten a call from Sam’s older brother while at San Diego Comic Con. She’s in trouble and now he has to protect her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worry

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS: mentions RAPE, VIOLENCE and DRUG USE and STALKING. And there is SMOKING.
> 
> Unfortunately this is one of those “oops I inserted truth again.” The stalker story is true. It’s all happened. Sorry guys, I write off of truth because it’s easier. I made some fluff at the end to make up for the negative.
> 
> Also on my Tumblr!

Tom paced the length of his hotel room, glancing out the glass door to the balcony that overlooked the street whenever he passed. He knew he’d hear her truck before he saw it, but he couldn’t stop his eyes from looking for the tan suburban. He couldn’t believe she was driving that instead of his car all the way down here to San Diego, but she never was comfortable in his car. He consulted his watch, worrying more than he already was. He’d put a lot of money into the suburban, lovingly dubbed ‘Murphy’, to keep it in pristine condition for her, trading off paying for repairs or going in half with her or her father on them. It was worth it as she did most non-major repairs on her own. He smiled at the thought of her putting oil in; up on her tiptoes on the front bumper, a knee on the grill and still hardly able to reach. How many times had he found her  _in_  the engine compartment, grease smudges on her face and cursing enough to make a sailor blush? Still, he worried, as he knew she did, that the damn thing would break down if pushed too hard. July in Southern California was not the time to be testing Murphy’s limits.

He slipped his iPhone out of his pocket and saw he had a text message from Sam’s ‘adopted’ older brother, Tommy, asking that he be notified the minute Sam was in his arms. If it hadn’t been for him, Tom imagined he’d be left in the dark about the situation at hand. Sam had a bad habit of down-playing dangerous or troubling situations when she got into them. Her pseudo-brother had begun taking a proactive stance on things and working in tandem with Alex to keep him informed. His phone buzzed in his hand before he could respond to Tommy. It was Alex, asking if Sam had arrived yet. Tom imagined she was probably wringing her hands in worry as she waited for news.

Despite knowing that his silence would worry Alex and Tommy more, he stuffed his phone back in his pocket, not wanting to deal with it just now. He returned to pacing, watching the street below. He checked his watch again. He had barely been able to focus during the panel at ComicCon. He felt bad for leaving in such a rush, though it had been completely necessary; He needed to know she was safe. The anticipation, wondering if her truck made it past Camp Pendleton, wondering if she was emotionally stable enough to even be behind the wheel, was making him want a cigarette very badly. Smoking was a habit he didn’t partake in much anymore if ever, but right now, it sounded fantastic

The guttural sputtering of the suburban’s engine drifted up to him and he looked out the window in time to see it taking the corner a little too fast up the street. He moved out to the balcony and watched as it came down the street towards the hotel, accelerating too quickly, the roar of it’s engine reverberating off the surrounding buildings. He leaned against the railing, watching. He knew the proper thing to do would be to go down to her but he decided not to chance it with his fans everywhere. As much as he loved and adored his fan base, right now was not a good time for him to stop for autographs. That and he’d managed to keep his relationship low key thus far. Very few people would recognize her and it was, therefore, more efficient to their needs for him to wait here. He could tell from her driving that she was emotional.

It wasn’t a long wait before he heard a knock at the door and it was all he could do not to run to answer it. The door was hardly open before she fell into his arms, dropping her bag on the floor. He held her tightly, sighing softly into her hair as she trembled. He reached over and locked the door as it slammed shut on its own then held her at arm’s length, looking her over.

“Are you alright,” he asked. “Did he hurt you? Were you followed?”

“No,” she said shaking her head. “No to all.”

She reached into his jacket and slipped the pack of cigarettes out of the pocket there and then went out to the balcony. He cringed slightly as he watched her light up, knowing full well that she didn’t smoke unless she was beyond stressed. How she avoided the addiction, he didn’t know, but it didn’t seem to be a problem for her. She started coughing and he sighed, following her and taking the cigarette from her.

“Give it back,” she wheezed, reaching for it, though he had no problem keeping it from her since she was a foot shorter than him. She glared at him as he took a drag easily, exhaling it through his nose in a heavy sigh. “Please?”

“You’ll aggravate your asthma,” he said, moving it out of her reach again as she tried to catch his hand.

“Tom, don’t,” she snapped. “Just fucking don’t right now.”

“Don’t what? Care about your health,” he returned, knowing it was childish to get sucked into her snippy attitude, but doing so anyways.

“Just stop. Give it back, let me calm the fuck down. I hate being like this towards you, okay? You don’t deserve it.”

“Fine,” he growled, taking another long drag before handing it back to her. She turned her back to him, crossing her arms and looking out over the street as she puffed away. “Why didn’t you tell me that you had a stalker?”

“I didn’t think about it,” she said nonchalant.

“This is kind of an important detail, Sam. We’ve been together how long now and you expect me to believe that it’s just slipped your mind until now?”

“Yes,” she replied, sounding more calm than even he was feeling. “There hasn’t been an incident since I was pregnant, so I forgot about him. Got to feeling safe again, I guess.”

He watched her, biting the inside of his cheek. Kadence was nearing three now, so if he chose to think rationally about it, he could see how she was lulled into a sense of security. Still, he couldn’t help but be angry that he hadn’t known. He pushed that aside to focus on a more pressing issue.

“Where’s Kadence,” he asked.

“I rendezvoused with my cousin and handed her off. She’s in Valencia and will stay there until my parents pick her up on their way back from San Jose.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. He was familiar with the cousin she spoke of. A sound engineering student attending California Institute of the Arts and Sam’s best friend since birth. He’d seen pictures of them when they were children and their resemblance to each other had been that of twins. Though as women, they no longer shared their looks, but their bond had remained. He had understood, upon meeting her, why Veronica had been made Kadence’s god-mother and found himself silently praising Sam for that decision.

“You did know about him,” she said suddenly, crushing the cherry out of the cigarette. “I told you that a friend of Kadence’s father raped me when I was nineteen. It’s the same guy. He took up with a friend of mine after he raped me. It was a dick move on my part to let that happen but I just wanted him out of my life. I disappeared off his radar for awhile up until I ended up homeless. Someone told him where to find me and while he was at it, he hunted down my friend who had, by then. washed her hands of him.”

Tom stared at her for a long moment before asking, “while you were living in your truck?”

“Yeah. She warned me that he was around and I didn’t realize he had been looking for me too until I signed into myspace on a whim and saw that he had left em a message saying he knew where I was and that I was living in my suburban, which i did not own while I spoke to him. Then, I saw him riding a bicycle down the street when I came home from grocery shopping and he recognized me. Saw him confirm my license plate in my rear view mirror. Not long before Kadence was born, her dad found his brand of cigarette butts all around behind my truck one morning. I saw his truck around a lot and was afraid to go to sleep at night, so I started making little tents out of spare blankets to sleep under to ensure he couldn’t watch me sleep.”

“Kitten, ” he said softly as she started trembling again. He didn’t need to hear anymore.

“I thought he was in jail,” she said, shaking her head. “I was told he was in jail. And I checked the sheriff’s website and he’s got warrants out for him for burglary and domestic assault.”

“Sam…”

“I know the girl he beat up, Tom. I went to school with her. She’s a complete psychopath that tired to ruin my life but I had been friends with her at one point. He beat her up in a motel parking lot over drugs. He raped me with a knife in his hand, for christ’s sake, and then told everyone I did it it willingly, couldn’t keep my hands off of him, simply because I didn’t scream. Because I didn’t call the cops because I was terrified of him. I-“

“Samantha, stop,” he commanded, taking a hold of her shoulders and giving her a small shake. Her eyes were wide with shock and fear and tears that had gathered there now slipped down her cheeks. “You don’t have to say anymore.”

“I-I don’t know how he found me this time…”

Tom sighed and pulled her in, wrapping his arms around her as tight as he could without hurting her. Her trembling got worse before it began to subside.

“You’re getting rid of your apartment,” he said firmly. “You’ll stay at mine. There’s no point in us both having one here, especially when I spend so much time abroad or in London.”

“But yours is far away from everything,” came her argument, muffled by his chest. “My job, my therapist, Kadence’s preschool…”

“You can drive my car for the commute. As I’ve said before, I’d rather pay for petrol here than in Europe and mine’s a hybrid anyways. Without paying rent on your place, we can save for somewhere a little closer to your needs. But for now, this is the solution I’m enforcing to keep you and Kadence safe.”

He looked down at her, as she nodded. He hated being pushy with her, but sometimes, he had to and this was one of those times. He was relieved that she wasn’t arguing, though the fact that he wasn’t insisting that she get rid of her petrol-guzzling beast of a vehicle probably made her more compliant. He was compromising, he knew but honestly, his car sat unused most of the time since he was always travelling for work and only drove it when he was stateside. Same with his apartment. Why not let her utilize these things?

“I want you to stay with me here until the convention is over,” he said in a softer tone than he’d used with her since she arrived.

“I have nothing to wear. I only brought me and Murphy.”

“We’ll get you a couple outfits this evening before going to supper with Chris.” 

“You shouldn’t-“

“I don’t want to hear it, Kitten,” he said with an exasperated sigh. “I know how you feel about being ‘spoiled’, as you put it, and you know how I feel about the way I take care of my girl.”

Sam was looking up at him with those big blue eyes of hers. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, ending the argument right then and there. She clung to him and he knew then and there that she was surrendering to him. He kissed her slowly for a moment, savoring the taste and warmth of her, safe in his arms.

“What would you like to do until then, kitten,” he asked her, stroking her hair away from her face, though he was certain he knew her answer.

“I kind of want to go visit the ships,” she answered. He nodded in agreement. He knew she would and that it would calm her down. She’d spoken of the tall ships that belonged to the Maritime Museum many times and how much she loved being on them. He’d caught a glimpse of them earlier in the day on his way to the convention center. He wouldn’t mind going there with her to look at them. He liked hearing her talk about things that she was passionate about and old ships was certainly one of those things. Since she’d been twice before, he knew she had a fair bit of knowledge, particularly on a certain ship. The  _HMS Surprise,_ which she had excitedly pointed out that she had been on when they watched  _Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,_ was owned by the museum and her personal favorite. Yes, he decided, they would go down to the ships and get her mind off of what happened.

“Alright, we can do that,” he said, smiling as her eyes lit up. “I should change first though so I’m not too recognizable.”

“Let me help,” she purred, her hands already undoing the buttons on his shirt. He smiled, know exactly what she intended, and though he had his doubts, her fingernails sliding over his exposed torso silenced them. He shrugged off his jacket and his shirt was soon to follow as he pulled her against him and kissed her. He knew from experience that she was seeking comfort and he wasn’t about to deny her what she felt she needed. He would answer her need slowly, gently, giving her what she asked for as she asked for it and he would set thing in her world right again.


End file.
